Shock and tributes after Wales manager Gary Speed found dead at home

Friends from the football world and neighbours from his home in Huntington,
near Chester, speak of their disbelief and sadness at the news that Wales
manger Gary Speed has died.

8:23AM GMT 28 Nov 2011

The former Leeds, Everton, Newcastle and Bolton midfielder was found hanged at his home in Chester on Sunday morning. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances around the death.

Bobby Gould who was manager of Waleswhen Gary Speed was a player, said of the manager: "He would do anything for you. He turned Welsh football around.

"He'd had a wonderful career. He got a lovely wife and two sons. I just keep shivering and shivering and shivering and thinking 'what has gone wrong?'. The question that's being asked."

Mr Gould was at the Swansea-Aston Villa match on Sunday, where there were emotional scenes at the Liberty Stadium as a planned moment of silence turned into a sponatenous minute of applause in Speed’s honour.

Aston Villa goalkeeper Shay Given, a close friend of Speed, was reduced to tears. Earlier, there had been discussions about postponing the fixture, but it went ahead on police advice.

Alex McLeish, manager of Swansea's opponents Aston Villa, said: "I definitely was worried because Shay was shaken; he was upset at the minute's applause, the minute's silence that turned into applause. And I was really worried about losing Given. James Collins was white as a sheet. Jermaine Jenas played with Gary at Newcastle as a partner in midfield, so these guys were all extremely distraught," said Mr McLeish.

Mr Speed enjoyed a glittering career as a player at Leeds, Everton, Newcastle and Bolton before moving into coaching with his national team.

He has been leading a renaissance of the Welsh national side in recent weeks, but his life has been tragically cut short by what police are treating as suicide.